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2018-11-12

I am not an expert, and I only went to re:Invent for the first time last year, but I have been to a quite a number of conferences over the years.

So here come my thoughts about making the most of the crazy week in Vegas.

The (regular) sessions

Contrary to what you might think, going to sessions where you have a speaker (or speakers) up on stage going through a slide deck, or a panel of speakers talking about a subject - is where you should be, is not a good use of your time.

There are currently 2358 sessions and activities listed on the portal (a good portion of them are repeats - but hell that is a lot of content)

Almost all of the sessions (I will get back this in a few minutes) are recorded and therefore can be consumed after the event - in the car, on the bus or train - or even in the air during your travels.

The Builder / Chalk Talk / Workshop sessions

Here is where I would spend my time. The cost of re:Invent (if you paid the full price) is $1,800 for 4.5 days (Friday is a short day). These are the sessions that will not be recorded and where I will probably get the most benefit
(and here are some of my interests). The value I receive is from doing things that I learn from, not by being a passive listener, but by actively participating in a discussion or an activity.

This is similar to getting a design session and time with an AWS expert in their field and diving deep into a specific subject. Most of the sessions are level 300/400 - which meant they are advanced and highly technical. The rooms are small - usually no more than 50-100 people and the participants there are usually people that are looking for a very specific answers about the journey they have embarked on - or are about to.

Hackathons

Want to geek out and build something, play a game or solve a whodunnit quest? This is where I will get my game on. Some are for fun, some are for fame, and others just for plain doing some good.

Giving back

Being at re:Invent is something that is fun, and usually something that can involve consumption of many things. Food, alcohol, entertainment and even your hard earned cash. Me being me - I prioritize giving back to others as part of my daily life. Spending a week at a conference only receiving is not something I am comfortable with.
So as a result I will be spending some of my time here https://reinvent.awsevents.com/play/giving-back

The BackPack for Kids program provides bags of nutritious, single-serving, ready-to-eat food items each Friday to children who might otherwise go without during weekends and long breaks from school. Come by the Venetian Sands Foyer to get involved and help put together a backpack or two! Learn more about Three Square here.

Keynotes

Event though the keynotes can be consumed from a live stream - there is something about sitting in a room (or a huge hall) with a boatload of people - where Andy Jassy goes up on stage and bombards you with all the new features that are coming (some that will only be available sometime in the future). But still it is quite mesmerizing and if you have not been in one of these keynotes - I would suggest you go. It is quite an experience.

The Certification Lounge

If you have an AWS certification - go to the lounge - it is a place to get away from the other 49,000 others in the hallways and the constant buzz around you.

The Expo

Do not under any circumstances miss going to the Expo floor. To really make proper use of the floor - I would say you will need a good 6-8 hours of your schedule (don't do it one shot though). Go to the vendors, especially the smaller ones that don't have the huge booths. Look at your competition, speak to people, make yourself known. Yes you will be bombarded after the show with sales calls - but all it takes is a simple "Sorry not interested anymore" and most vendors will leave you be.

Social media

I don't think I could get by without following what is going on in Twitter.
I have a search column dedicated for re:Invent (already for the past month)

I will also be checking the og-aws Slack channel to co-ordinate snark about the announcements and on-goings at the event and also some face to face meetings with some of the people that I only have met through their avatars.

(And as always the great set of posts at the Guide of Guides is invaluable.)

There are more than enough things that one could find wrong with the way things go at a conference - and I am not diminishing the problems one little bit.

I would like us all to view it in a different perspective.

The companies that hold these events - are tech companies. They are great at selling technology, great at creating some amazing technology. An of course they also have people that are in charge of events and marketing - but it is not their core business.

I do not underestimate the impact a good event can have on your product - or how a bad event can damage a company's brand - that is why companies like these spend many millions of dollars on events like this. But again that is not what they are trying to sell, they are not trying to sell an event. They are not event planners, this is something we seem to forget from time to time especially when things are not optimal (another polite way of saying that they suck).

They outsource the events to an external company.

The signs, the transport, the advertising, the venue, website, the on-site services, scanners, the food - and yes - even the mobile app. All of these do not belong to any one of these companies they are all provided as part of the service that another company sells to these market leaders.

It does not make sense for any of the large vendors to bring up an event all by themselves. For an event that is sometimes no more than 5 days in a year - they will not maintain all the dedicated resources (physical, human and virtual) for just one event.

So it make sense to outsource it all. And they do.

There are a few vendors out there that are capable of bringing up events on this scale - such as Cvent or Lanyon and if you ask me - they do a pretty good job.

There are always things that can be improved. The app could be better (this year there are significant improvements in the re:Invent app experience 😃 ) The registration could be better, the directing of human traffic at the conference could better, the list could go on and on.

Is IS the job of the tech vendor marketing teams to demand from these event companies to improve from one event to another and get better from year to year. To make sure the food is better, improve registration, make sure that the (also human) traffic flows.

If I look at this from a technology perspective - it is a classic case of consuming something aaS (As a Service). AWS provides us with infrastructure, and they maintain software. but they do not employ all the people that put the chips on the motherboards of every server in their datacenters. They do have people that provide input into the design of the servers - in order for them to operate more efficiently, and in turn provide a better service to their customers (you and me).

I would not expect them to have chip designers or assembly plants on the payroll to allow them to run their business. They outsource / contract that work from a 3rd party.

They contract / outsource their event management. All the big companies do - it makes perfect financial sense.

Does that mean we should stop bitching about the food, the lines, the app? Hell no! By providing constructive criticism (or complaining) we make things better, because that is what we the customer demand. And these event management companies - will hopefully improve.

Some food (pun intended) for thought - when you are your next conference.